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stpeter's blog on jabber, technology, history, philosophy, et alia

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2003-02-26

Still Drafty

Another revision of the XMPP docs.

Today I submitted version 04 of the XMPP Core and XMPP IM Internet-Drafts to the IETF. I've been cranking really hard on these documents for the last week or so, and I think it shows -- they're getting fairly close to done. Expect one more revision of each before March 3, which is the deadline for I-D submissions before the upcoming IETF meeting in San Francisco.

Posted on 2003-02-26 at 20:18. File under jabber.

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Extremely Extensible

XP, XML, and XMPP.

Eric van der Vlist has done some thinking about the possible interactions between Extreme Programming (XP) and Extensible Markup Language (XML). One of the areas he explores is "virtual pair programming": the ability to work collaboratively with one or more colleagues in real time, just not in real life (as traditional XP methodologies recommend). This is something we're familiar with in the Jabber world (where much work gets done via groupchat), but I think it could be extended to the construction of real-time co-editing software based on Jabber. Since Jabber's XMPP protocol is 100% pure XML, and since Jabber systems are more immediate than something like SOAP or XML-RPC over HTTP (in fact there are Jabber bindings for both), it seems that XMPP makes perfect sense as a foundation for real-time editing tools. Eric mentions the Jabber-based XML Cooktop application as one such tool, but we could go much farther in this direction to encompass not just XML editors but generalized co-editing software. Given the fact that AbiWord, OpenOffice, Gnumeric, and others now use XML formats, it might be easier to build co-editing software dedicated to word processing documents and spreadsheets; but perhaps the most promising audience would be programmers. Add groupchat (and maybe some SVG-based whiteboarding) into the application and you've got just about everything you need for virtual pair programming. So who wants to do the work? :)

Posted on 2003-02-26 at 20:00. File under technology.

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2003-02-23

How Buildings Learn

High style vs. vernacular in habitats, software, and philosophy.

In his most recent Suitwatch column, Doc Searls again mentioned Stewart Brand's book How Buildings Learn, so this weekend I borrowed it from the Denver Public Library and read it. Fascinating. Although the book is ostensibly about buildings and how they change over time, I found lessons galore in there for any field that tries to create structures -- from software design (as Doc points out, we call it architecture) to philosophy (the successful worldviews change over time as people "inhabit" the system).

When we create structures, there is always the temptation (some call it "analysis paralysis") to create something perfect and unchanging in all respects. Brand labels this the "high style" approach. It is endemic in architecture, which worships the architect-genius who makes buildings that are works of art, not living, adaptive structures. High style buildings ignore the accumulated wisdom of vernacular building traditions (e.g., pitched roofs are better than flat roofs), which is one reason that high style buildings fail to fulfil their function ("If the roof doesn't leak, the architect hasn't been creative enough" -- Frank Lloyd Wright) and do not adapt well to the real needs of the occupants.

We find similar problems in software engineering, where the desire for a conceptually consistent and beautiful solution (say, OS/2 or Java or X.400) fails to provide the same flexibility that messier but structurally solid architectures provide (say, Perl or Linux or SMTP). I'd say that Jabber falls definitely on the simple, extensible, Low Road, vernacular side of the fence -- it isn't perfect, but the underlying structure (XML streams, three simple packet types corresponding to information push, presence broadcast, and request-response) is strong and the skeleton is so extensible that people can keep adding rooms onto the house in order to do the things they need to do.

To me, the analogy extends also to philosophies. In the introduction to Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick lampoons thinkers who seek to provide a perfect account of any phenomenon, since they inevitably must ignore a large number of facts that don't fit the theory. Using Brand's insights, we can say further that such thinkers must avoid contemplating the uses to which their ideas will be put. Typical high style thinkers seek to create a perfect philosophy from the get-go (rationalists such as Descartes and Spinoza comes to mind), and their philosophies do not adapt to changing times. Vernacular thinkers are more interested in putting together a strong outline and opening up the system to change and growth over time (Aristotle comes to mind, though his system was hijacked by high-style renovators in the later Middle Ages). Interestingly, Ayn Rand was (like the architect-hero of her novel The Fountainhead, and like her real-life hero Frank Lloyd Wright) an utter high-style modernist in this regard: she wanted to created a perfect, finished philosophy and loathed anyone who dared so much as change a comma. Unfortunately for her, the occupants of any philosophy tend to modify things over time in order to meet their needs, just as building occupants do. If the philosophy is a strong, open system in the first place, that kind of change over time makes organic sense; if not, the occupants abandon the worldview in favor of one that is more adaptable. It's a natural process of change over time, much as physical and intellectual architects resent it.

Next book: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. After that perhaps The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz (on scenario planning) or something by Christopher Alexander, such as A Pattern Language or The Timeless Way of Building.

Posted on 2003-02-23 at 20:36. File under philosophy.

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Drafty

Cranking the flywheel in the XMPP WG.

Whoop! On Friday I submitted updated versions of three XMPP Internet-Drafts (core, nodeprep, and resourceprep), and just now I submitted a fourth (IM). The IM draft is much improved, with much more detail in the section on blocking communication (in response to a huge thread on the mailing list last week) and a major new section explaining how rosters and subscriptions interact (critically important). Check out all four at <http://www.jabber.org/ietf/>. Now I'm going to rest for a few hours.

Posted on 2003-02-23 at 16:58. File under jabber.

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2003-02-19

Of Guardrails and Gyroscopes

More political musings.

I do apologize for all these political entries, but that's what is on my mind of late. I just posted the first draft of an essay entitled Of Guardrails and Gyroscopes, in which I explore an analogy between gods and governments. It's something I've been thinking about for about 6 years, but I finally put some of it down on paper. Feedback welcome.

Posted on 2003-02-19 at 21:47. File under politics.

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2003-02-18

Wondering

Some thoughts on current politics.

Perhaps it is derelict of me, but I have not paid much attention to all the crazy happenings in the world of late. I know I'm supposed to care, but apathy keeps creeping up on me because it's all so far outside my span of control. Yet I do wonder sometimes....

I wonder why the central government of the USA is planning to wage war against the central government of Iraq (I pointedly do not say that the USA is planning to wage war against Iraq -- that would be quite a different phenomenon). For it seems that the government headquartered in the city of Washington wants to remove the leader of the government headquartered in Baghdad, and I wonder why a war is necessary to effect that change when assassination would do the job with a lot less pain and suffering. Why is assassination supposedly uncivilized but war is not?

I wonder why the government headquartered in the city of Washington sees fit to take by force a large proportion of the monies earned by most individuals in North America, in order to build weapons and pay soldiers and move both all over the globe in pursuit of objectives that have nothing to do with the defence of North America. And I doubly wonder why other monies forcibly collected from said taxpayers are sent to far-flung places in order to prop up other central governments and buy their support for the policies of the government headquartered in the city of Washington. Why is isolationism a dirty word when it seems to be a natural synonym for peaceful relations with all, entangling alliances with none?

Abraham Lincoln said: "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent." I never gave my consent to be governed in this fashion, and I don't think anyone else did either -- I mean true, explicit consent, not the supposedly tacit kind extracted from me when I am forcibly taxed or when in self-defense I attempt to vote for the lesser of two evils (and no, I don't think I'll make that mistake again). So I wonder about the legitimacy of the government headquartered in the city of Washington, and of every other government on the planet. And I wonder: wouldn't the world would be a much safer place without all these governments (especially without their weapons and armies)?

Henry David Thoreau said: "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." One can argue about the "justice" of this war or that war, but large-scale war happens because large-scale government happens. I wonder if we will ever fully absorb this painful lesson of history.

These are the things I wonder.

Posted on 2003-02-18 at 19:43. File under politics.

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Unknown and Mysterious

Measuring the impact of open-source technology.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: subscribe to SuitWatch, the fortnightly report on all things open-source that Doc Searls writes for Linux Journal. In his latest missive, Doc likens the presence of Linux (and other open-source technologies) in the corporation to our knowledge of what makes up the universe:

Ordinary atomic matter: 4%
Dark matter: 23%
Mysterious dark energy: 73%

We don't know anything about the last two, which means we're essentially in the dark (if you will) regarding the contents of the universe. That 4% (which we still don't fully understand) is just the tip of the iceberg.

I often feel the same way in the Jabber world: there are a few thousand Jabber servers that connect to jabber.org on a semi-regular basis, but we know that there have been over 150,000 downloads of the jabberd server over the last 3+ years. Where have all the servers gone? They're running on intranets or private servers or whatever, and just chugging away providing IM services to many thousands and probably millions of end users. In other words, they are the dark matter and dark energy of the Jabber community. And you know what? That's just fine -- no one especially needs to know much about them, but it's comforting to know that all that matter and energy is out there somewhere.

Hmm, this is turning into a Jabber Journal entry and I haven't written one in a while. I guess I need to add that to my .plan....

Posted on 2003-02-18 at 13:06. File under technology.

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2003-02-17

Freedom's Plow

Seemingly complete.

I think that I'm finished composing my musical setting of the long poem Freedom's Plow by Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes. I've been playing and singing the music for a month or so now and I don't hear a lot that I would like to change, so I'm calling it done. As befits a poem with over 200 lines, the total performance time of my arrangement is around 26 minutes, so it is an extremely long song! To put that in perspective, it is over twice as long as the longest Bob Dylan song I know ("Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands", which is a little under 11 minutes) and it is even a few minutes longer than the longest Yes song ("The Gates of Delirium", which is almost 22 minutes). In actuality, my setting of Freedom's Plow is more like a suite of six or seven songs than one uninterrupted song. It may even be too long to perform live (not that I would likely have the opportunity), but I like it a lot, so I hope to share it with people somehow. Don't your breath, though -- I've been promising to record some of my music for over ten years now and it hasn't happened yet...

Posted on 2003-02-17 at 16:45. File under music.

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2003-02-13

OSCON Redux

What I'm submitting.

Here's what I'm submitting to O'Reilly for OSCON:

Title: Open Source and Open Standards

Abstract: Open source depends on open standards. Yet the standards environment is not always a friendly place. Focusing on the Jabber community, this talk explores successful strategies for building and maintaining open protocols, and thus making the world safe for open source.

Full Description: Open source depends on open standards. While open-source projects flourish best where protocols are open (think Apache), the environment is often closed (think Samba) or has become polluted by proprietary protocols (think Kerberos). Where the protocol ecosystem is emerging or where there are competing proprietary protocols, there is an opportunity for open-source projects to help drive the standards process. The Jabber community has pursued just such an opportunity in near-real-time messaging through a two-pronged approach. First, it has formed an IETF Working Group that is working swiftly to codify the core of Jabber's XML protocol and bring it into line with IETF standards regarding security and internationalization; this effort should lead to RFC status for the core Jabber protocol by mid-2003. Second, in order to prevent protocol pollution, it has worked with Lawrence Lessig and others to clarify the Jabber Software Foundation's role as an intellectual property conservancy, with an open process for approving extensions to the core protocol and an IPR policy that prevents protocol pollution. The combination of pending IETF approval at the core and an intellectual property conservancy closer to the "surface" yields a powerful engine for maintaining rapid forward progress as well as safeguarding the Jabber community's core mission of seamless interoperability and freedom of communication.

Posted on 2003-02-13 at 16:10. File under jabber.

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2003-02-12

OSCON or Bust

Jabber emerges from hibernation.

Back in 2000, the Jabber community had an active presence at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and nearly stole the show. Unfortunately, that momentum was lost in 2001 and 2002, when Jabber, Inc. ran its own conference, thus separating all that Jabber energy off from the rest of the open-source community. There were good reasons for doing so at the time, but the brutal reality is that it was not the best course of action, and led to a loss of momentum and adoption. Thankfully it seems that 2003 will be different, with the JSF, Jabber Inc., and other active members of the Jabber community working together to build a strong presence for Jabber at this year's Open Source Conference. Rob Norris has already submitted proposals for a talk and a tutorial on jabberd, and I'm hoping others will submit proposals for the Perl, Python, PHP, and applications tracks. Plus the JSF will host a booth to provide a focal point for re-introducing Jabber to open-source developers. And some IRL meetings among core developers won't hurt, either -- can you say "hackfest"? :)

The track that seems to make the most sense for me to try speaking in is the XML track. Here they're looking for talks on things like XML schemas and software, new standards, best practices, and intellectual property issues related to schemas and standards. Given that background, I'm thinking of submitting the following proposal (some tweaking required before I submit):

Open Source, Open Standards

While open-source projects can truly thrive only in an environment of open standards, reality is not always so clear-cut. Where no standards yet exist, there is an opportunity for open-source projects to help drive the standards process. The Jabber community has pursued just such an opportunity in real-time messaging through a two-pronged approach. First, it has formed an IETF Working Group that is working swiftly to codify the core of Jabber's XML protocol and bring it into line with IETF standards regarding security and internationalization; this effort should lead to RFC status for the core Jabber protocol by mid-2003. Second, in order to prevent protocol pollution, it has established the Jabber Software Foundation as an intellectual property conservancy (similar to Creative Commons) with an open process for approving extensions to the core protocol. The combination of pending IETF approval at the core and an intellectual property conservancy closer to the "surface" yields a powerful engine for maintaining both forward progress and the open nature of the Jabber community.

Posted on 2003-02-12 at 08:58. File under technology.

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2003-02-01

Jabbering Away

Logo contest, new I-Ds, and much more.

Just a quick note about Jabber happenings (think of this as a mini-version of the Jabber Journal). This morning I published new versions of the two main XMPP Internet-Drafts, as well as three new I-Ds covering object encryption and stringprep profiles. I think we may be only the second Working Group to publish stringprep profiles (after the IDNA folks), so we're right there on the bleeding edge. :)

Also the Jabber Software Foundation just announced a logo contest. We're looking for a few good artists to submit designs. The prize is $500 and eternal fame. So far I've contacted Jakub Steiner and Garrett LeSage among others to encourage them to submit. If you know graphic designers, send 'em along!

Going to the Open Mobile Alliance meeting in Long Beach for a few days here, but I hope to be back to blogging when I return.

Posted on 2003-02-01 at 14:21. File under jabber.

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